You are absolutely correct when you say that it will cost them money to continue to develop this car into its full potential, but believing that they are not willing to put make that investment is where I believe you are mistaken. For the first time in 20+ years Acura and Honda executives were both present dealer meetings. Preaching overarching brand symmetry. Honda kept boasting how much they support the vision that Acura has for the next 10 years. That is a HUGE deal.
When you say the GT stuck to its heritage, the NSX did as well. They made a bargain of a car that has revolutionary technology for its era at a fraction of the price of the competition. Whether people appreciate the advancements in technology that were made and how well they were applied to the car comes down to personal perspective.
I believe they did a fantastic job but possibly fell just a tiny bit short of the current performance benchmarks that exist in the highly competitive super-car market today. For a new car to come into that market and make some noise and have steady and consistent sales you need to be better than the competition, not just comparable. To me this is the only place you could say the NSX fell short of it’s mark and even then I don’t know of many if any owners or potential clients that walked away from the car after driving it and said it was too slow.
The biggest benefit of having the car stand out on paper is the fact that many of the supercar sales today are determined by the on paper statistics. This was overlooked initially but is not something that is overly difficult to fix. While I’m no engineer I know that they have some of the finest ones working on this car and it should not be overly expensive or time consuming to take the horsepower from 573 to 650ish.
Here is the question I would propose to you, If Acura made this car the best performing and most insane car on the market, would people have paid the premium for it? I see so many claiming that $200,000 (common exaggeration) is too much for a Honda and yet asking for much much more from the car. The best possible comparison for this car is the Porsche 918 spyder in terms of technology and driving experience. The NSX has 573 horsepower, weights 3,800 pounds, does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, and starts at $156,000. The 918 has 887 horsepower, weighs in at just under 3,700 pounds, does 0-60 in 2.5, and started at $847,975.
If Acura gave us comparable options, would it not be reasonable that the car would cost $600,000 or well over that? If it had 918 performance it would be a bargain at $600K or even $700K.